The Coupon Stigma

I really don't fully understand why there is such a stigma surrounding coupon usage. When you go to the dealership, do you pay the sticker price? Haggling is a cruder practice than coupons in my book. I guess there are 3 main reasons I can think of that help give coupon usage such a horrible rep. ONE: If you are using coupons the person on the other end is probably assuming you cannot afford things or are poor (which, btw: doesn't make you a lesser person) TWO: The whole argument that the person using the coupons is, "Looking for something for nothing." THREE: People who abuse coupons. People who try to use them for things they didn't buy, expired coupons, etc. They ruin it for all of us!

Number two is not entirely untrue. I am looking for something but not for nothing...the store isn't giving me anything for free. I am just wise enough to figure out how to get the manufacturers to put groceries & other things in my house at their expense. I guess it's nothing out of my pocket, but it's not that the item is Free to the store. If people could wrap their little heads around the fact that coupons are just another form of payment (i.e. cash, food stamps, credit card, coupon) it might help their attitudes some.

I admit that when I started using coupons last summer, I was DESPERATE. I had a baby that had been home from his 29 day NICU stay for only a few weeks and I just knew those bills were about to start rolling in. I had also just discovered that my then 2 yr old was going to need some combination of physical, occupational & speech therapy outside of ECI and I knew that wasn't going to be cheap either. Oh and let's not forget Formula. Since he wasn't able to breastfeed WE had to figure out how to supply the formula. No WIC here. Since going and getting a "real" job that would actually help with bills wasn't an option with all of my children's appointments I knew I needed to cut back significantly in other areas.

Thanks to seeing Erin on our local ABC station, I realized I needed to REALLY learn how to coupon. Not casual couponing. Not just clipping a few coupons at a time. No, I needed to figure out how to stock up at rock bottom prices and not just keep buying things as we needed them without regards to pricing. Granted I don't keep a year's supply of anything on hand but I think I'm doing pretty well for being so new to the game. I don't have anywhere to store a year's supply of anything, lol. This house needs more storage! :)

So back to my original point. I had my first dose of the 'crap' you can get when you use coupons on Sat. I was at Randall's. I've had the experience there that nobody fully knows the coupon policy but never had such blatant disrespect before.

The store director just flat out didn't want to be bothered with me & for some reason the register wouldn't take the last 4 coupons ($1ea) and he wasn't even willing to discuss it with me. He fed me a line about why the coupon didn't work, which was completely untrue since one of the exact same coupons had already worked! Even when I informed of that, the man walked away from where we were at, hopped on another register and didn't even give an answer to anything. The poor cashier (who agreed there was no reason for the coupons not to work, she agreed I was following the 'rules' on the coupon but didn't know how to work her register.) The assistant store director was behind her, caught wind of what was going on and told her how to override it.

I don't appreciate the attitude I was given by the store director who clearly didn't like his job, walked away AND talked crap to another employee about me. I didn't like him trying to make me feel like I am a lesser person or doing something wrong by legitimately using coupons.

Our circumstances have changed some since last June. If I really wanted to I could go without using coupons. However, I don't understand why anyone would WANT to pay full price when there is another option out there. I'm sure the same people that think it's horrible to use coupons still shop off of sales racks for clothing & other items. Most of them probably buy the store brand thinking it's a better deal. And it might be that day, but I will almost guarantee the name brand will be cheaper at some point, esp with a coupon!

For me couponing is now about the thrill of the hunt. I enjoy finding and learning through other people (TY HCW) about the great deals to be had. It's a great feeling knowing I can now donate food, etc to other people & causes. I am happy that we can save the money and put it towards other necessities...like paying down the rest of those 2008 medical bills and my 3 year olds continued therapies. In 2009, thanks to setting a realistic budget and couponing, we will get to finally climb OUT of the hole!